Middle Eastern food production arose in the context of four environmental zones. From highest altitude to lowest, they are:

high plateau, hilly flanks, piedmont steppe, and alluvial desert (the area watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers)

Where do scholars believe that food production first began in the Middle East?

A. Marginal zones

B. Alluvial desertC. Hilly flanksD. Desert oasesE. High plateau

Where did the earliest domestication of animals and plants in the Middle East occur?

A. in desert oasesB. in the area where wild forms of wheat and barley grewC. along the banks of the NileD. in the marginal zone next to the hilly flanksE. in the Fertile Crescent, where the world's first civilization emerged

What is sedentism?

A. life in permanent villagesB. living off domestic speciesC. transhumanceD. a capitalist-based exchangeE. living off wild species

When did sedentary life develop in the Middle East?

A. before farming and herdingB. after farming, but before herdingC. after herding, but before farmingD. after farming and herdingE. at the same time that farming and herding developed

The Natufians' ability to exploit their rich local environment with broad-spectrum foraging made it possible for them to

A. live in year-round villages prior to the emergence of domestication

In the Middle East, early cultivation began as an attempt to copy, in a less favorable environment, the dense stands of wheat and barley that grew wild in the hilly flanks. All of the following either motivated or facilitated this attempt except

human inventiveness and experimentation that occurred in the optimal zones, such as the hilly flanks.

What is a vertical economy?

a system that exploits environmental zones that contrast with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation

Which of the following conditions did not contribute to the development of food production in the Middle East?

the diffusion of domesticated animal species from southern Europe

With domestication, what happened to the husk, which encloses the edible portion of wild cereals? It became

A. tougher.B. thicker.C. darker.D. more brittle.E. unaffected; wild cereals do not have husks.

Which of the following statements about sheep is not true?

Wild sheep produce purer wool than domesticated sheep.

The foundations of the state—a social and political unit featuring a central government, extreme contrasts of wealth, and social classes—emerged

in the alluvial desert plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where a new economy based on irrigation and trade fueled the growth of this entirely new form of society.

The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed independently in at least seven world areas. One of these areas is what is now southern Egypt, where excavations at Nabta Playa

provide evidence for the "African sheep complex," in which cattle were used economically for their milk and blood, rather than killed for their meat except on ceremonial occasions.

Which of the following was not domesticated in China?

A. CassavaB. MilletC. ChickensD. The water buffaloE. Rice

Which of the following is not one of the areas where food production was independently invented?

A. the eastern United StatesB. the Indus ValleyC. the Middle EastD. MesoamericaE. South China

The independent domestication of the dog

was a worldwide phenomenon.

Which of the following was not domesticated in the eastern United States?

A. GoosefootB. Marsh elderC. CornD. SquashE. Sunflower

Three key caloric staples and major sources of carbohydrates were domesticated by Native American farmers. They were

maize, white potatoes, and manioc.

The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed independently in at least seven world areas. New archaeological research techniques continue to overturn previously held assumptions about where and how this occurred. Microscopic evidence from early-cultivated plants suggests that

New World farming began in the lowlands of South America and then spread to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.

Contrary to the old assumption that New World farming originated in the upland areas, recent research suggests that

farming first originated in the tropical lowlands at about the same time food production arose in the Middle East—around 10,000 years ago—and that these new techniques developed in the tropics diffused into drier regions at higher elevations.

What have new dating techniques applied to plant remains revealed about the origins of domestication in the New World?

Evidence of Peruvian squash seeds dating back 10,000 years has pushed back the origin of domestication in the New World to about the same time that food production arose in the Old World.

What is the name of the wild ancestor of maize?

A. CornB. GuajaloteC. CaviaD. TeosinteE. Elote

Where were beans domesticated?

A. MexicoB. New EnglandC. PatagoniaD. BeringiaE. the U.S. Southwest

Which of the following is a key difference between the food-producing traditions of Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica that helps us understand the subsequent histories in the two regions?

Large domesticated animals played an important role in Mesopotamia but were absent from Mesoamerica.

Unlike the pattern in the Old World, plant domestication in the New World

occurred before the rise of the first sedentary communities.

Anthropologists once thought that domestication would happen almost automatically once people gained sufficient knowledge of plants and animals and their reproductive habits to figure out how to make domestication work. They now know that

foragers have an excellent knowledge of plants and animals and their reproductive characteristics, so some other trigger is needed to start and sustain the process of domestication.

Food production was a critical step toward the broad-spectrum revolution.

FALSE

Early cultivation began as an attempt to copy, in a less favorable environment, the dense stands of wheat and barley that grew wild in the hilly flanks.

TRUE

Most researchers today argue that the domestication of plants in the Middle East took place in the hilly flanks regions where wild plant ancestors naturally grew.

FALSE

In the Middle East, sedentism developed before plants and animals were domesticated.

TRUE

A vertical economy exploits environmental zones that are close together in space but are separated by altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation

TRUE

Compared to those of wild plants, the seeds of domesticated plants are larger and less likely to shatter and disperse.

TRUE

With domestication, plants developed thicker husks

FALSE

Nabta Playa was an important center for prehistoric herders in southern Egypt.

TRUE

Around 8,000 BP, communities on Europe's Mediterranean shores started to export species to the Middle East.

FALSE

In the Middle East, as subsistence economies became more specialized and more dependent on domesticated species, population centers began to emerge that had temples, writing, and canals for irrigating fields

TRUE

Rice was domesticated in southern China.

TRUE

China was host to three different centers of domestication: one in the north, one in the south, and one on the eastern coast.

FALSE

The domesticated millet that appeared in China around 7,500 BP was first domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa by about 8,000 BP, then diffused to China through long-distance trade networks.

FALSE

Unlike the centers of domestication in the Old World, very few animals were ever domesticated in the New World.

TRUE

Corn, beans, and squash were the major crops to be domesticated in Mexico.

TRUE

There were at least three independent centers of domestication in the New World.

TRUE

Recent research using microscopic evidence suggests that farming in the tropical lowlands of Central and South America began at around the same time that food production arose in the Middle East.

TRUE

In the New World, sedentism occurred before domestication

FALSE

The geography of the Old World facilitated the diffusion of plants, animals, technology, and information.

TRUE

Food production is more labor intensive than foraging.

TRUE

With a more reliable food source, the early food producers were considerably healthier than the hunter-gatherers

FALSE

Agricultural intensification enabled people to farm for only part of the year, then leave the cities to live away from the problems endemic to urban populations for the rest of the year.